Christopher van Donkelaar

Plan for the West Wall

Christopher van Donkelaar — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 22:10:37 +0000

In planning the icon’s placement for the west wall of Christ the Saviour Orthodox Church in Kitchener-Waterloo, I’ve tried to come up with something that is visually pleasing with the structure already present within the Nave. Mostly, I’ve built upon the ratios possible within φ (the golden ratio: which is when, “the sum of the quantities to the larger quantity is equal to the ratio of the larger quantity to the smaller one” – Wikipedia ).

One thing I hadn’t realized before I measured was that the two sections of wall between the existing pillars are not of equal width. After trying a couple of different solutions, I think it would be best to place four icons in the longer section, and three in the shorter. This will allow the wall to be balanced throughout, and the icons to be of a good size.

I’m proposing that the final icons should measure 2′ (61.0 cm) x 1¾” (4.4 cm) x 2′8″ (81.3 cm) (L x W x H). This will make them quite large as free-standing panel icons, however many examples of icons this size, and even larger, have existed in churches; especially as processional icons. In fact, I was fortunate enough to see a few such examples at the Onassis Cultural Center in their, “The Origins of El Greco: Icon Painting in Venetian Crete” exhibition during my trip to New York last month.

Given that, according to this plan, the west wall will now require seven icons, we may have to adjust the current time-line of this project. However there are already two factors that will have impact upon that plan: Our late start in the project and the changing of my mind regarding the panels.

Every few years I have a moment of intense frustration regarding the time it takes to write an icon in the traditional manner. But, time and time again this attitude is corrected (in this instance, it was my MFA critique!) and I remember what a privilege it is to create genuine icons. The decision to create the wooden panels will add months to this project; but centuries to the icons.

For now, I will continue to spent 10 hours a week on this project (as originally intended).

I welcome any comments, or thoughts, from the parish.

Transart Winter Residency

Christopher van Donkelaar — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 02:10:59 +0000

The last week of February I traveled down to New York City to attend the Transart Winter Residency. While an optional part of my graduate studies, it seemed like too good of an opportunity to pass up.

The residency took place at the Sideshow Gallery in Brooklyn. Sideshow is a cozy gallery, and the perfect size for our group of roughly 40 students. Over three days, each student took their turn presenting their work to date and receiving a critique from both faculty and fellow students. It was a very helpful time for me, and I’d like to take this chance to state what I’ve learned and the effect it will have going forward with my own project.

While I appreciate the comments that everyone made, there were two devastating (and therefore extremely helpful) comments made during my critique. The first was from Nicholas Estevez: When Nicholas stated that, “I don’t feel that they are charged spiritually …”, it was like having the wind knocked out of me; after all, what is the point of an icon if it isn’t spirit-bearing? But, he’s right … the works are more painterly (and good studies) but poor as icons (Mary Ting echoed this in her statement, “Maybe the art thing is infringing on the icon”). In this studio project I’ve approached the icon as artwork, and spent more time in brush-strokes than the spiritual. If my studio project is about creating an icon, than I need to create an icon (not gallery artwork).

The second hard thing to hear was that, even with the two icons of St. Barbara being created using only a single rock from Cobalt and Madoc, the images were still opaque in their story. The journey of their creation (which is central to the Transart project) wasn’t comprehensible. I continue to be frustrated by this because I think it represents a broader cultural blindness to what surrounds us (present both in the art world, and religious communities). This project’s intention wasn’t to set the icon apart, but use it as a vehicle that demonstrates the same reality that exists behind a simple kitchen-chair: Mankind’s ability to create new examples of beauty out of the earth.

With both these ideas in mind (and many other notions, too) I think that perhaps a stronger project can be built around the journals kept in creating an icon (it was Jean Marie Casbarian who first hit upon the idea that a journal might be stronger than a website during the critique). So, instead of creating many examples of icons created from rocks around Ontario, I will focus on creating just one, from my village of Conestoga. And, while the icon will be the ending point, it will be the paper journal that represents the studio project for this semester.

This journal will include the exploration of the story of St. Barbara, my local environment, pigment tests, my daily thoughts and prayers. I’m also committing myself to observe the monastic practices of morning and evening prayers (with the addition of the iconographic dedication prayers for both the objects and myself), fasting and daily meditation during the writing of this icon in an attempt to address Nicholas’ concerns.

There are still a lot of issues that were raised during the winter residency that I’m not decided about. How (or can) religious art can function outside of a religious space? Can aspects of the icon (maybe the halo, or a grain of pigment sand) function as art apart from the icon? For now, I think I’ll let these questions simmer …

Before I close my entry on my trip to New York, I also want to mention that I made a dash to the Onassis Cultural Center and viewed the, “The Origins of El Greco” exhibition which was wrapping up that weekend (a special thanks to Mary for pointing out this opportunity to me!). The icon pictured here was absolutely stunning to witness; and I found myself spending a good deal of time contemplating it. It too was part of my education for the week!

Plan for the West Wall

Prepping new colours

Christopher van Donkelaar — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 02:10:06 +0000

I’m now working on the second icon of my St. Barbara series, this one will be from outside Madoc, Ontario. The colours from this location are much brighter than from Cobalt, and offer a naturally occurring yellow ochre and a beautiful Indian red.

But, I’ve come to realize that I am missing a good brown colour for the icon’s hair. So tonight I roasted a sample of the yellow ochre in my little kiln to attempt and create one. I’ll have to wait and see what the results are until the morning!

St. Barbara’s face

Christopher van Donkelaar — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 02:10:25 +0000

Painting, painting, painting …

I’m actually rather pleased with how things are turning out. The green annabergite pigment I’m using has presented some challenges, but these challenges have also led to some creative solutions and new techniques which I will continue to use in my regular painting practice.

I’ve also come a little closer in understanding what creates an icon … as much as gestures and stance play a role in a painting being iconographic, I think that the eyes are probably central in such a work. For this icon, I spent almost a whole day executing the eyes. I think it was time well spent.

Cone 10 Pigments

Christopher van Donkelaar — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 02:10:46 +0000

When I saw the sign in the window of S & S Pottery Supplies asking for fill in an upcoming cone 10 gas firing I knew that I had to get something ready … The opportunity to subject samples of my collected pigments to almost 1300°C (2400°F) in an oxygen-less environment was pretty exciting.

In all, I prepared twelve samples (pinch pots and all) mostly from iron-based pigments. And, they represent the entire range of these colours: Yellows, reds, browns and purples.

Watching them be loaded into the large kiln I thought that, in the end, I might simply end up with a dozen shades of black; but I suspect that even these will be unique once I grind them out!

St. Barbara’s basecoat

Christopher van Donkelaar — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 02:10:30 +0000

This week I’ve begun putting down paint for the first icon of St. Barbara for my Transart project. This icon is being created from the annabergite I collected during my trip to Cobalt, Ontario. It’s also the same pigment I used during my attempt at painting a tree from that area.

Now that I’m standing back from the work, I wonder a little whether beginning with this place and pigment was a good idea. It’s limited colour range and poisonous nature are both things that I find difficult; and there’s a personal weight associated with it after my last attempt, of course …

Tuesday I decided to postpone painting one more day and attempt to broaden the colour range of this sample through subjecting the pigment to higher temperatures than I did previously. The concern here is that at these temperatures it means the sublimation of the arsenic within the annabergite. In this case I wasn’t too concerned, as the amount was very small and I kept the kiln downwind and far away from everything, but if I ever needed to do such a thing on a larger scale I would need to set up a proper filtering system for the gases.

The results weren’t much to speak of at the initial temperatures, but my last batch (and highest temperature) produced a marked change. The annabergite earth shifted toward a brown colour; and this is a very welcome addition to my palette! You can see the results in the basecoat of the flesh …

Also, now that the first layers of paint are applied, I’m struck by how much wider even the unheated colours look on the panel (instead of on my pigment shelf in my studio). Once they’re not beside the bright ochres, vermillions, azurites of that collection there own uniqueness becomes far more apparent.

Over the weekend I plan to begin working up the face, which will be the climax of the work …

Madoc: Eldorado Gold

Christopher van Donkelaar — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 02:10:14 +0000

In life, it seems to me that there are two kinds of people: Those who eat their favourite bits of supper first, and those who save best for last. I guess I belong to the latter group, because I’ve been really enjoying the anticipation of harvesting the yellow ochre pigment that Reiner and I collected on our trip to Madoc before the snows came. These goethite rocks are the brightest yellow I’ve seen from Ontario so far, and I excited to see the pigment they create.

My first surprise in this process was that the goethite turned out to be a coating on these rocks only about 1/4 of an inch thick. When I broke open a sample, the rocks central mass became obvious and I realized that I needed to change my approach in harvesting. I had been prepared to pulverize the rocks I collected, but that would make a less bright colour, so I changed my tactics.

Instead, my assistants and I washed the rocks by putting them into a large bucket with water and mixing them around. The water turned a bright yellow (as did the little hands that were mixing). The pigment is so fine that you can’t feel it on your hands and it acted more like a dye (although I’m sure it isn’t soluble in water, and therefore really a pigment). Once this was done we decanted the water into another bucket, leaving the undesirable rocks behind.

Now the pigment needs to settle before I can start to remove the extra water. I might also use this method to separate the finest pigment from some of the courser (one of which might prove to be the brighter). For now, I’ll wait …

Madoc: Day two

Christopher van Donkelaar — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 02:10:04 +0000

I’ve been on trips where I spent most of my time looking for something and in the end was thankful to find it. But, yesterday I found more than I had hoped for on the first go, so Reiner and I decided to have a bit of fun and visit the Roger’s Mine. The Roger’s Mine was a Fluorite mine (not much good for pigment) but the crystals are beautiful and fun to collect.

To get to this mine, and the Eldorado for that matter, I had to learn to drive on a new kind of ‘road’: Old railway corridors. I had little worry doing so; since these paths were built for trains I couldn’t imagine my little VW Golf being a problem. Still, when I pulled over to let an ATV by, or had to turn around, I was extra careful because I didn’t want to have to arrange for a tow truck …

While at the Roger’s Mine we did find something of interest regarding pigments: Baryte. This mineral doesn’t have a long history as a pigment, but as an extender it does, under the name blanc fixe. I use to think that extenders only existed to make cheap paint, but of late I’ve realized that sometimes they can really improve the brushablity of a paint.

The entomology of Baryte became evident on the hike back to the car. The word is derived from the Greek word, baryos which means ‘heavy’.

Pigment hunting: Madoc

Christopher van Donkelaar — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 02:10:32 +0000

Months ago, Reiner and I agreed that if there was no snow we’d head up on an early November weekend and look for colours on the Canadian Shield. As the weeks passed we decided that we would head for the town of Madoc and continued to hope that the weather would cooperate. Well the weekend came, and the weather was fine, so we headed up.

Reiner said that he knew of a little place where we could stay, but it wasn’t until we pulled up that I understood that he really meant ‘little’. The Madoc Hotel was very comfortable, clean, and the owners were nice folks, but if I was planning to spend any amount of time in the room I might have become claustrophobic! (But since I wasn’t, this wasn’t a worry.)

Firstly we headed up to the Eldorado Mine which was originally worked in 1901 for iron-hematite, in 1903, however, they found copper and continued mining for those minerals until 1907. Either the iron or the copper could create some great pigments, so it seemed a good place to begin. We didn’t have much trouble finding the main pit (roughly 50′ round and 75′ deep) thanks to Reiner’s GPS.

Digging into the bank on the edge of the pit was really exciting as our hammers uncovered bright yellows, reds and greens. The green was Chlorite, and wouldn’t be much good for pigment, but the iron based yellows and red were wonderful finds. I read in an old article once that good yellow pigments weren’t available in North America, but there are exceptions to this for the amount a single artist needs. I can’t wait to get home and work with this pigment!

Silver Leafing

Christopher van Donkelaar — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:10:19 +0000

The past few days have been about silver leafing. While I’ve been laying gold for many years now, I’ve never applied silver before this weekend. And, while the techniques used in water gilding are the same, the black bole and the silver’s nature as a metal were definitely a little different: The black bole being far more noticeable in it’s holidays and the silver being more rigid.

The results were good though, and now it’s time to begin painting!